Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The “Party of God Brigades” (Kata’ib Hizbullah) of Iraq struck the Tower 22 US military base in the far north of Jordan on the border with Syria on Sunday, killing three US military personnel and wounding dozens more. The Shiite militia said that it was part of its continued attempt […]

Ecology

How Trees and Forests Heal us and make for Well-Being,

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Korean scientists have confirmed that walking through forest areas improved older women’s blood pressure, lung capacity and elasticity in their arteries. Walking in an urban park with trees, or an arboretum, or a rural forest reduces blood pressure, improves cardiac-pulmonary parameters, bolsters mental health, reduces negative thoughts, […]

Featured

From the Siege of Leningrad to the Siege of Gaza: Colonialist Mentality

Yakov M. Rabkin

Montréal (Special to Informed Comment) – Eighty years ago, on January 27, 1944, people in the street were hugging each other and weeping with joy. They were celebrating the end of a nearly 900 days brutal siege. Soviet forces lifted the siege of Leningrad after ferocious battles. Exactly a year later they liberated Auschwitz. Even […]

Displaced and Refugees

Israel’s Reputation forever Besmirched by UN Court Injunction to Cease Genociding Palestinians

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The International Court of Justice’s ruling on “provisional measures” regarding the allegation of genocide against Israel for its behavior in Gaza is what in the US we would call a “preliminary injunction.” That is, it finds that South Africa in its complaint has made a plausible case that Israel is […]

Democratic Party

Israel’s Victory in Gaza turns Pyrrhic as a Majority of Youths and Democrats brand it Genocidal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel is losing its campaign against Gaza not so much on the battlefield — though it is unclear that very many of its military goals have been accomplished — but in the court of public opinion. The Israeli far right has long ignored such PR setbacks, convinced that as long […]

Climate Crisis

Top 3 Pieces of Good Green Energy News this Year

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The climate crisis is the most serious challenge facing our globe, and it is natural to do some doom-scrolling about how we are failing to make the necessary changes fast enough to avoid catastrophe. But as climate scientist Michael E. Mann argues, concentrating on the negative actually promotes apathy and […]

Featured

How Israel’s Starvation of the Gaza Palestinians Has led Biden to try to Starve the Yemenis

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The British Royal Air Force and the American Air Force bombed the Yemeni capital of Sanaa again on Tuesday, in a campaign that President Biden admits has had no effect. Washington and London ordered the airstrikes, now being launched almost daily, in retaliation for the rockets being launched at Red […]

Featured

How Israel got Stuck in Orwell’s ‘1984’

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special for Informed Comment; Feature) – As state paranoia rises in Israel, civil liberties including freedom of the press have taken a huge hit. Indeed freedom of thought is under siege for Israeli Jews, not to mention the nightmare faced by Israeli Arabs, and those in the West Bank.* Israel has recently abused […]

Displaced and Refugees

Catastrophic Displacement Crisis in Gaza is a New Phase in More than a Century of Expulsions by Israel

Jared Keyel

Glassboro, NJ (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – As a scholar of war, migration, and refugee resettlement—but more importantly as a human being—I have watched the death and mass displacement caused by the Israeli assault on Gaza with mounting horror. Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 25,000 people and injured another 61,000, […]